London will provide France nearly half a billion pounds in a bid to stop refugees entering Britain

By: F. Najafi

Recently, the English Channel—a canal connecting France and Britain and one of the world's busiest waterways—has been in the headlines due to the flood of refugees as the worldwide migration crisis worsens. The British government has recently reached an agreement with France that would see the latter country receive half a billion euros to aid in its attempts to stop asylum seekers from crossing the English Channel and entering British territory.

At a meeting at the Élysée Palace, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron reached an arrangement under which Britain will pay for a detention facility on French soil in exchange for France strengthening border guards and using cutting-edge technology to patrol its coasts. Also, French and British authorities are allegedly exploring opportunities to work together in the fight against human traffickers.

A senior British official suggested that London would pay France €30 each year for the next three years to cover the expense of establishing a jail to house the asylum seekers. The detained immigrants would be transferred back to their home countries or to the last country they entered before arriving in Britain. While the people of Britain are facing double-digit inflation and skyrocketing costs of living, their government decides to pay Paris half a billion euros. This explains why the UK public's response to Sunak's costly agreement with Macron was so unfavorable.

Despite the implementation of anti-immigrant legislation in the West, hundreds of thousands of people from West Asia and North Africa are seeking to enter Europe in order to escape violence and economic, social, and political instability caused by Western interference. As a consequence of US-led conflicts, nearly one million and three hundred thousand refugees departed Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan in 2015, with the bulk heading to Germany and Sweden.

Western governments have embraced anti-immigration measures to deal with the issue of the desperate refugees rather than admitting the repercussions of their war-mongering policies.